competition is fierce

I added more names to my competition list last week than ever before in one week. There are many woodworkers out there. All sizes of companies, ones where you need a golf cart to get around the shop to ones that are single proprietor run. All of them we compete against, in one way or another. If it is a small job than they can take the whole project away from us. If it is a large job than they compete for wallet share. We are relatively new to the market just over 10 years so we are johnny come lately's, and we have to price our work competitively to secure work. How do we combat this? We remaine able to do a wide platform of work. We don't limit ourselves to specializing in one thing, like those who make those parts in the last blog entry. We make many different things. The specialist will have a hard time surviving in the new economy, because of market saturation. Where as those who make different things, doors, windows, planters, gates, exterior trash bins, vaulted canopies, cabinets of different styles and types, mantles, closets, what ever is asked for, from raw materials will remain busy.

the little that we outsource

 
some parts for job 77. These have been painted but are awaiting the glazing and then the final clear coat. The two legs are from ARt for Everyday and the turned legs are from Osmound wood products. Both companies I searched out at the Atlanta show this past summer. I looked at all the major players work and determioned who had the best product line. I am also using parts from Enekbol on this job.

more improvements

Another great day in the shop and the field. Productivity is again up and moral is up as well. I have made yet another advance in the weekly goal sheet. I have inserted monetary values to the jobs so that the staff can see what size payment is coming in and from who so they can better decide what job to work on if there is any confusion about what job to work on. I think it will eliminate an excel file that look at and work on frequently, the cash flow sheet. Now my cash flow will be visible on the goal sheet and I will only be working on one sheet and not flipping back and fourth. this is will add value to the client, more time and effort spent on value added things.

We had another Kaizen event on saterday. I had to lead that one up myself. Esteban helped me some what. I completed the new rack that goes under the sand paper shelf. this new rack will hold work that is in progress, like doors that have been built but are not being painted. It holds the parts off the floor and away from the wall and in an orderly fashion where they are easy to see and easy to pull from and put back.

essence of the effective team

productivity has been sizzling the past two days in the shop. I have at the last staff meeting put out on the weekly goal sheet the gant chart showing all the active and inactive jobs. So the staff can see at a glance all the jobs we have and also what stage they are in. the jobs are either P for production, F for finish or I for install, we call the PFI chart. also on the chart is a time line that we measure by week number in the year, currently we are in week 10. My next step is combine the cash flow chart on the PFI chart, so at a glance we can see what needs to get paid, or better yet the staff can see how important a job is to complete by knowing the monetary value of the completed job. On this chart I highlight where we are now so we can see what needs to be done. This is the essence of the effective team. When the team simply knows what to do without direction.

nice door

 
Beatiful french style doors that we built last year, with arched paneling at top and straight paneling at sides. Notice the the grill, it is from Archterctural Grills.

advantages of being on the cuff

busy times for KBWC. I am installing at job 104 now Julio and I that is. doing an install is similar to making a painting, or a drawing for that matter. the first line is always wrong. the first thing that I install is always in the wrong place. I was talking to a super high end cabinet builder with in a huge company that has loads of work and employees, he said "no that is not true, mistakes are for amateurs". Maybe he feels that because he is in a big company that has resources to handle all aspects of the job, engineering, production, scheduling, sales. Down here at cuff cabinets things are different, we have to rely on instincts, and team work, patience, and understanding. I don't consider myself an amateur, far from that, not a master either. But every single job that install it seems that where ever I draw the first line on the job it is in the wrong place, there comes something that I didn't consider, so we have to be able to change our game plan and react to the new circumstances. This gives us strength, instead of blaming each other about why it happened we simply move on to the solution. At KBWC we know that problems are going to happen, we focus on handling them quickly. this has trained us well, to the point where the customer can really benefit if they want to change something mid way we can handle that to.

new goal sheet

this morning we had our weekly staff meeting. I have changed the format of how I share the goals. I am using a gant chart that I make in AutoCad, and I have broken down the job into P for production and F for finish and I for install. it is called the "PFI" schedule. The time is measured in weeks. it is a view of not all the jobs but the smaller ones that we are working on currently in between the larger jobs. The idea is that at a glance the staff can look at the gant chart and know what needs to be done. This is also the premise of an effective work group, it doesn't need instructions it just knows what to do. We are a long way off from that but I am trying to create the culture now.

One of the jobs in the shop now is a cherry library. We are using solid wood, it is becoming a problem, not only is it expensive but very labor intensive. the wood is very active, moving around alot. In the future we will be using our new vacuum presses to glue veneer to sub-straights and then using the panels for the cabinets, and only using solid wood where it really matters like the moldings.

We recieved some island corbels today from "Art for Everyday". they are gorgeous. I was shocked at how fast they came. For job 77 we are starting to get all the final pieces together and it is very exciting it will be one of our most impressive cabinet creations to date. I really need to start posting some photos of this amazing job.